The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-12-07
leo Skaters and Topogganists Pro
pairing for the Current
Season.
How to Build a TobOggan Slide
The Cost OF COnstrue-
ti0n, Etc.
The Game Of Racquets = The Latest
Popular Indoor Pas
time.

winner ii now Iairiy upon us, ana around
the shipping and receiving doors of the big
sportinR-goods establishments of Chicago
are piled great staeks-not of base ball
bats, masks, balls, gloves, and other para
phernalia Of the diamond, but of tobog-
Rans, bob-sleds, gymnasium apparatus,
cases of ice and roller skates, cases OF
warm and brilliantly hued Canadian
wool blankets, for manufacture in
to toboggan costumes, piles Of
snowshoes and crates of racquet bats,
and all other appliances necessary to in
and out door winter sports.
If the weather is favorable throughout
the Northwest this winter. the indications
are that winter sports will be more gener-
ally INDUCED in this year than ever before.
Among outdoor sports, tobogganing and
ice skating will of course take the prefer
ence.
The manager Of the Chicago house Of
Spalding Il Bros, who probably handle the
largest number of toboggans and ice skates
OF any sporting goods house in the
country, remarked to an inquirer
the other day that where their
house alone sold over $500 toboggans last
year and material for nearly 5000 cos
tunes, they expected that the demand
this year would be almost double these
figures. Inquiries are being received daily
Is to the cost of toboggans and toboggan
outfits, and the cost of erecting slides.
From present indications it is safe to say
that the coming holidays will find one or
more slides in operation in every populous
town in the Northwest. 1t is an easy mat
ter for thirty or forty young people to get
together, form q club, and contrib
ute $40 or $15 apiece toward
the construction of slide and
the purchase of score of star toboggans.
Judging from the manner in which the
young people Of Chicago have gone into
the sport already, they expect to receive
their full share of fun for the expense in
CURED. And why not? An excellent arti-
fetal slide can be erected for from $3.50 to
$3.50, and the lumber can always be con-
verted TO other uses after the season closes,
or can be stored away for construction when
another season begins. Where natural
slides exist, this expense of course need
not be incurred. Twenty toboggans will cost
800 more, and costumes can be purchased
or made at home with such expense as the
owner can afford. When this has been
done the sport to be enjoyed upon the
torch-lighted and ice sheeted run ways,
or by the rays of a full moon when a score
or more of rosy checked and brilliantly
costumed couples are out for a slide in the
crisp. cold air, can only be fully under
stood when participated In. OF course a
regulation toboggan costume is not really
necessary to the enjoyment Of this pastime
of the Canadians. but when a tobogganist
of either sex is properly eostumed
they can enjoy the sport with
AS to the work of putting up q slide, the
method of construction is very cheap,
simple and strong but care should be taken
that the braces and floor beams and posts
are thoroughly we'll spiked together. By
boarding up around the posts of the lower
part of the level part of the platform, a
large room will be afforded, at slight ad-
ditional cost which may be kept warm, if
desired. and afford a means of shelter or
q place for refreshments, as we'll as to afford
q place for the club to store their articles
under lock and key. In ordinarily favora-
BILE localities the cost ought not to exceed
$3.50, which is liberal estimate.
Another form of winter sport which Chi
cagoans have taken hold of in earnest this
season is that Of racquets, and when one
come, as a rule, enthusiastic admirers of
it. A month ago Capt. Arson, the big cap
tain of the Chicago ball club, assumed the
management of the only racquet court
there was in the city at that time. 1t stands
on Michigan avenue, and is easily accessi-
BILE by club men, Board of Trade men,
and the wealthy young bloods of the city
who have become regular frequenters of
the court since it opened.
Many readers will ask, What is racquet"
for the game has never been very extern
sively played in this country. 1t is similar
to the old game of hand-ball, only that
the ball is smaller and harder than hand
ball and is struck with a bat something
like tennis racquet but longer handled.
The game is played in an inclosed court,
the regulation court being about thirty five
feet long, twenty feet wide, and twenty-five
feet high; the walls and floors of solid
cement, and the whole lighted by
skylight in the ceiling. The rules of hand
ball apply to the game of racquet, and no
exercise that a young man or woman can
indulge in is more beneficial in every way.
OF course 1t is not necessary to construct q
regulation court to enjoy the game. A
spacious loft of any kind, with the walls
solidly boarded or plastered and lighted
from above, would answer admirably, the
only expense necessary being the pur-
chase of the racquets and box of
balls, with. perhaps, flannel or worst
ed gymnasium shirt and pair
of rubber soled exercising shoes.
These can be found at any sporting goods
house. In Chicago the game is rapidly
taking the place of many other athletic
pastimes. 1t is great work to get into
Anson's court aud throw ones self into q
profuse perspiration through the active
work necessitated by the character of the
play. Then to strip off, stand under a
shower, and afterward have strong armed
attendant rub one down until your muscles
feel firm and vigorous, and your skin is red
with the chfang gives an exilarsting and
healthful effect not allowed by any other
means. Racquet is great sport-at least
so say all who have INDUCED in it.
GENERAL MENTION.
The gate receipts of the recent pedes-
trian match at Philadelphia were only
g, 900.
Boyd and Bethune, the sprinters, fixed
up an unknown" sprinting match in Brook
Ign and cleared several thousands on the
scheme.
Those who are interested in tobogganine
will find fur information as to the sport,
Its cost, artificial slide construction, ETC., by